Creative Ways to Encourage Creativity

Children have powerful imaginations and can often move between fantasy and reality in ways that adults, who have learned to control their behavior, simply can’t. Neuroscientists report that children experience more frequent ‘theta wave activity’ – the daydreams which adults have just before falling asleep. Here are a few starting suggestions for parents helping children to be more creative. 

1. Encourage your child to express themselves. Dancing, acting, painting, building, and writing are all creative outlets. Some children may have developed the vocabulary or the word-sense to write, whereas others may need to be more active. 
2. Allow questions. Children have a great advantage over adults when it comes to creativity. They have yet to learn how to behave ‘correctly’. Be receptive to unusual ideas, questions, or physical expression which isn’t adult, and your child will feel more secure and self-confident. 
3. Develop the senses. Although first graders learn lots at school, much of their academic development can be based on looking and listening. Blind tastings (peeled grapes or cucumbers, cold cooked pasta, yogurt, and shredded cheese, for example) can be a fun way of developing children’s ability to touch and taste. Parents wanting to encourage children’s creativity must teach their first grader to trust his or her senses. 
4. Look closer. Go to the beach, or the sandbanks by a river. Pick up a handful of sand. It’s just sand, right? Now look closer. Closer. Every handful of sand is unique, full of thousands of tiny colored grains. Which color is your favorite? Can you find two that are the same? Now use those vision skills elsewhere. 

For more information on frequently asked questions about creativity, please see the full article: